Artist captures spirit of Forbidden City
By Zhu Linyong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-09 06:31

New approach to history

With Jiang's artistic strokes, he painted many court ladies in the settings of the Forbidden City, from the empresses and princesses to concubines and courtesans.

They are women of aristocracy and antiquity, with an elegance that is slightly affected and almost alienating, and are also the object of Jiang's admiration.

"These women I paint represent a kind of classical aesthetic. There's nostalgia about them, one that is not instantly overwhelming but that will come back and haunt you," Jiang said.

When 33 of his works on the Forbidden City were shown as a Sino-Italian cultural exchange event in Rome months ago, Jiang was highly praised by the local visitors and critics alike.

His style appears to have drawn fully from the artistic tradition of the 17th Century Flemish Rennaisance maestros such as Jan van Eyck (1385-1441).

And he has portrayed "the spirit of imperial Chinese tradition," observed Italian art critic Roberto Del Signore, after viewing Jiang's solo exhibition in Rome.

His works "can initially create, in the heart of the viewers, an alienating effect linked to the attempt to define a language in which the Eastern and Western cultures can merge harmoniously," Signore added.

Many Italians said that they know about the Forbidden City in Beijing only through director Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 movie "The Last Emperor," which portrays the ill-fated monarch Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi of a declining Qing Dynasty.

"The viewers asked me a lot of interesting questions, such as who those people in my paintings are, whether they are my family members, and whether some of these figures are still alive and can be seen if they travel to see the Forbidden City in Beijing," Jiang recalled with a smile.

"Most of my portrayed figures are fictional," Jiang admitted.

He created these images and their settings based partly on historical documents, old photos, and partly based on his imagination and on-site observations of the royal palace.

Sometimes, Jiang even employs his family members and friends as models for the figures in his paintings.

"This approach gives me much freedom in artistic creation. It also allows me to realize my own aesthetic pursuit," he said. And that may explain why some Chinese art critics have labelled Jiang's works as "New Historical Paintings."

"The painter has never chosen historical events or figures in the real sense as his topics, but Jiang did more than merely 'illustrating' history," commented Zhao Li, vice-dean of the Art History Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts.

"Through the lofty spatial structures and exquisite details, as well as painstaking portrayal of main figures, he created scenes of 'historical dramas' with the painter himself acting as the director, producing tense situations and acute spiritual confrontations," Zhao said.

In still more of Jiang's paintings, women, the central focus, were rendered as confident, beautiful, kind and healthy, with all qualities and features of modern Chinese ladies, a sharp contrast to the classic insipidness of sickly and weak women often featured in ancient Chinese literature, wrote Zhao in a catalogue of Jiang's paintings.

"This unique treatment more clearly reflects Jiang's historical view, as well as his definition of historical paintings: A painter must not be bound by history when depicting history. The painter must be able to stand aloof from historical situations so as to observe and present eternal themes of humanity," concluded Zhao.

Striving for perfection

For years, Jiang has painted similar scenes in different oil works, as he is always trying to enhance their strength by adjusting the compositions, adding some details, or applying some new techniques to certain parts of the images.

To achieve desired effects, Jiang often takes a craftsman's approach to his paintings.

"For instance, over a decade, I have painted several works of similar themes, such as 'Palace Gate' and 'Son of Heaven.' But none of them resembles each other. Because each time I did my job, I would apply some new ideas and new techniques to it.

"The traditional Chinese painting aesthetics play a great role in my own creations. And partly because of that, I believe no Western oil painters can do the same as I have been doing in depicting the Forbidden City," Jiang said.

"My painting is aimed at a 'finished' finish, near perfection. It's deliberate and repeatedly worked on, rather than improvised."

When asked about whether he will continue to dwell on the subject matter of the Forbidden City for his future artistic creations, Jiang said "Yes, of course," with great confidence.

"I do not remember how many times I have paid homage to the Forbidden City over the years. But every time I go, the centuries-old palace can always give me inspiration," he said.

(China Daily 12/09/2005 page14)